Well, folks, I got my hands on a copy of L. M. Sagas’ follow up to Cascade Failure, Gravity Lost, and I’m a little disappointed. Partly because I don’t think the sequel really pushes the story any further, but some of the thematic elements of the first book that felt open-ended became closed off in a way that reduced my enjoyment. It’s still a good book and worthy of being read if you liked the first one, but some of the flaws stand out a little more in the second outing, which makes this book less for me than I was expecting.
It isn’t long after the crew of Ambit delivered Drestyn to representatives of the Union when they’re contracted to break him out of their grasp. Drestyn, who led a small rebellion to expose the Trust’s planetary schemes, knows even more than he let on previously, and there is no end to the people who want to silence him. The crew would have turned it down, but unfortunately, one of their own members is involved in ways they can’t control. Jal, Saint, Nash, and Eowen team up again to release the man they just put away. The question remains: who stands to benefit from Drestyn’s knowledge, or who stands to benefit from him being killed?
This is a tough one because I don’t think Gravity Lost is a bad book, but I felt I had to push myself through despite my anticipation. From the get-go, I had some issues in that the opening of the book served as a reminder of who the characters were in relation to each other. This immediately put me against it just because the first book came out so recently. A lot of that information was still fresh in my head. So the first 20% of the book just felt unnecessary to me, a weird setup that served to provide separation between the crew of the Ambit, only for them to be brought together again through the events of the story. I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing, but it felt artificial, considering the end of the first book and how easily the two books could have been more chronologically seamless. Instead, there is a time gap that disrupts the story for me and puts me on my back foot for the rest of the book.
It put me in a more critical mood than I was prepared for and made the reading experience less enjoyable for me. Where Sagas’ writing was deliciously dense in Cascade Failure, it felt repetitive in Gravity Lost. The way characters thought of each other felt a little dissociating as they continued to describe each other to themselves and the reader. Sagas is a good writer, and is amazing at putting yourself in the head of her characters and how they see the world. But I already know how the individual members of the Ambit feel about each other. So to see Nash describe Jal and Saint with the same attitude as in the first book, it felt maddening. I kept feeling myself say, “I know, I know, I know, can we move on?” It was frustrating, especially when the premise was particularly luring to me.
So what about the story? Well, I was both pleased by parts of it, and annoyed by other parts. Drestyn in Cascade had a real energy about him, and I looked forward to his time in Gravity Lost. And for the most part, he’s relegated to the background. When he shows up, he has real gravitas. His one point of view chapter is a real tour de force. I sopped his story up like a sponge, it’s just unfortunate it was only a glass and not a bucket. He was a really good character who had incredible charisma and a worthy cause but a questionable means of carrying out his will. Questionable in that his methodology warranted discussion because it seemed the only proper recourse, especially to him, but it also involved supreme violence. I wanted him to have more interaction with the crew so we can see his ideas bounce off the main protagonists. The other antagonists were well-drawn in terms of being enemies, and the reveal of the true puppet master was well-paced. I wanted a little more discussion between the crew about their predicament, but it’s okay that it was mostly an action-oriented story of found family.
But I’ll give more points to Sagas here; she can write tense action scenes with the best of them. These are dirty gunfights in hallways, with improvised plans and small intimate kill counts. The crew of the Ambit often find themselves backed into a corner, outgunned, and outmanned. Sagas excels in selling a bad situation and then making the characters resourceful enough to find their way out, even when it requires killing and sacrifice. One moment felt a little Deus Ex Machina, but even so, the risks have to be weighed and measured. And sometimes the dice rolls are shit. A lot of the time, the house just wins. It’s the kind of stuff that makes me hesitate to use the word cozy to describe the series as a whole. It has its moments, but these books aren’t walks through the park.
Where my final batch of mixed feelings lay, though, is within the story’s themes. In my previous review, I mentioned how the potential for Sagas to deliver something really interesting was wide open. Unfortunately for me, she only half delivered on that potential. Now, I recognize that this is a personal taste issue and not one of technical or objective judgment. I was hoping for a deviation from the typical found family story considering the level of grit within the story and the constant nods to the fact that the system as it stands is corrupt and wobbling harder than the shitty wheel on the grocery cart. It felt like the perfect setup for a one-two punch that built upon the found family trope while interrogating some of its repetitive tendencies.
I want to reiterate Gravity Lost is a good sequel. It’s just not my favorite. It has a good mixture of the cozy family stuff mixed with the gritty and shitty parts of reality that pop that bubble. Drestyn is a real force that only further highlights Sagas’ ability to write good characters, filling the reader with their perspective. She writes suspenseful and horrifying action sequences that make you question the survivability of characters. Plus, it’s really hard not to love Nash. If you liked Cascade Failure, you’ll probably have a blast with Gravity Lost. And while I didn’t love it, I still enjoyed it for what it was.
Rating: Gravity Lost – An enjoyable ride
-Alex
